Outdoor lighting has become extremely popular over the last decade. Initially, such lighting strings were used primarily indoors for decorating Christmas trees. Eventually, such lighting was moved outdoors as well, to decorate the house, exterior buildings, shrubs or adjacent trees. Now, the popularity of this type of lighting has extended to other holidays as well such as Halloween, special occasions, parties and so on. Some people use this type of lighting decoration year round.
The typical outdoor lighting string has a plurality of miniature bulbs, usually about 100 bulbs per string. When one bulb burns out, the others will remain lighted. The strings are made up of two strands of green wire so that the lighting will blend in with the environment. The strings are usually about 25 feet long with plugs on both ends so that more strings can be attached. Manufacturer's instructions require that no more than four strings are to be connected together. Also, a visual detectable fuse is included in one plug end so that if amperage usage exceeds specifications, the fuse of the string that has blown can easily be determined.
To prevent the connection between string plugs from getting wet and causing short circuits, electrical or duct tape is frequently used to wrap the joined plugs. In addition to the inconvenience of such methods, the color of the tape causes the taped connectors to be readily visible rather than blend in as the green wire does. Further, by wrapping the connection in tape, viewing the status of the fuse in the plug is not possible without removing the tape, changing a blown fuse, and then re-taping.
Several manufacturers provide a device for keeping connected cords from getting wet. Once such device, made for extension cords, requires the mating halves to be snapped over each other and then screwed together to cover the cord connections. This device will not work for outdoor lighting strings due to the fact that two wires of smaller gauge are used in outdoor lighting strings and a single wire of much larger gauge is used in extension cords. Further, once this device is locked into place, viewing the status of the fuse in the plug is impossible since the device is opaque. Further, once in position, it cannot be easily removed thus making changing fuses, if necessary, extremely difficult.
Another device, PROTECT-A-CORD, is designed to connect a tool power cord to an extension cord. In this device, opposing hinged halves are said to snap together around the connection and the cords to prevent accidental uncoupling. This device makes no claim for water proofing and the device is opaque, again, rendering it unsuitable for outdoor lighting use.
Still another extension cord device features rectangular hinged halves which are placed around the connection plugs and cords to prevent accidental uncoupling. As found with the above referenced device, no claim is made regarding the prevention of water from entering inside the cover and it, too, is opaque. Again, this destroys the suitability for outdoor lighting string connection use.
A low cost, outdoor cord connection cover apparatus that is transparent so that the status of the fuse present in the plug can be easily viewed; features hinged halves that can be easily snapped firmly together to house either two, three or four plugs; and that provides a water resistant seal that will surround the thin gauge wires of the lighting string are not found in the prior art.